Some preliminary ideas on narrative inquiry in educational studies and educational reform are presented. Illustrations from Bay Street School (drawn from a 9-year research project on personal knowledge and narrative) are included. Since whatever may be said about narrative as method follows from its character as phenomenon, the aspects of narrative's phenomenal character necessary for discussing method are explained. The elements in an idea of narrative method are noted, with a focus on experience and time, personal knowledge, and reflection and deliberation. In addition, the process of narrative inquiry is discussed. One way to think of the process is that it is possible to find what can be described or accounted for within the experiential texts being created in the shared narrative inquiry process. When researchers record field notes of participant observation, there is an interpretive quality involved. Interpretations are offered because one of the main functions of research from a narrativist point of view is to foster reflection and restorying by the participants. Part of the concern in narrative inquiry is with audience, and narrative researchers must consider issues of representation and audience. Narrative researchers set out their narrative purposes and an appropriate context; they then counsel readers to play the believing game to ascertain the truth of the story. Readers assuming this way of participating in the narrative experience of another must be prepared to see a story's possible meanings and, through this process, come to see other ways of telling their own stories. Contains 52 references. (SM)

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews